Mary of Guise

Mary of Guise (22 November 1515-11 June 1560) was Queen of Scotland from 9 May 1538 to 14 December 1542 as the second wife of King James V of Scotland. From 1554 to 1560, she served as regent for her daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, and she ultimately failed to stop the Protestants from taking over Scotland.

Early life
Mary of Guise was born in Bar-le-Duc, Duchy of Lorraine on 22 November 1515, the daughter of Claude, Duke of Guise and Antoinette de Bourbon. Among her 11 siblings was Francis, Duke of Guise, who would play a major role in the French Wars of Religion as the head of the staunchly Catholic House of Guise. Mary became Duchess of Longueville in 1534 after marrying Louis II d'Orleans, Duke of Longueville, but Louis died in 1537, ending their short, happy marriage. In 1538, she married the widowed King James V of Scotland, and their daughter Mary, Queen of Scots was born on 8 December 1542, just a few days before her father died.

Struggle for the regency
The government of Scotland was first entrusted to James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, as regent. King Henry VIII of England wished Mary to marry his young son, the future King Edward VI of England, leading to clashes between those who supported an alliance with England and those who supported an alliance with France. In 1544, Mary spearheaded a failed attempt to replace Arran as regent, but her power base was increased after French troops arrived in Scotland after the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547.

In 1554, Mary became regent, and she consolidated the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland. Frenchmen were put in charge of the treasury and the Great Seal, while the French ambassador sometimes attended the Privy Council. From 1558 to 1559, Protestants in Scotland engaged in iconoclasm against Catholic churches, and Mary fought hard to prevent the Reformation from taking over Scotland. She opposed the pro-English and Protestant "Lords of the Congregation", and Mary's forces were able to nearly destroy the Protestants before an English fleet arrived in the Firth of Forth in January 1560. The English began a siege of Leith, which was repelled with heavy losses, and Mary proceeded to fortify Edinburgh Castle. She died there from dropsy on 11 June 1560 at the age of 44.